The one demand that set up Gary Oldman with his greatest role
It seems like Gary Oldman has got this whole acting thing all figured out. Thanks to his role as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter franchise, he is immortalised in the eyes of millions of fans worldwide. However, it’s not just big blockbuster franchises like HP and The Dark Knight that he’s appeared in. Oldman has made just as many biopics and arthouse films, including Darkest Hour, which bagged him a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar for his performance as Winston Churchill.
One thing that the star is often praised for is his ability to immerse himself in any character. His most famous parts are completely unconnected from each other, to the point where, if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t realise they were played by the same actor. Oldman is highly adept at physical and vocal espionage, changing his mannerisms and voice to fit almost any brief. However, sometimes, this blessing can be a curse.
In 2022, Oldman joined the cast of the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses. Based on the novels by Mick Herron, the show is about a subsection of MI5 dedicated to housing agents who have made serious mistakes in the field, but haven’t messed up enough to get fired. Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the unruly, slobbish head of the department. Lamb is English, something that was crucial to the actor playing him.
Douglas Urbanski, one of the executive producers on Slow Horses, is a regular collaborator of Oldman. According to the actor, he made a series of demands to Urbanski before he signed onto the show, including one regarding his voice. “I said to Doug, and I swear this is true, ‘Please find me something where I can use my own accent, I don’t have costume changes and I’m not rolling around in blood and mud,” he told USA Today, before adding on, “Oh, and it should be a long-form TV series, and the writing needs to be fantastic.”
Urbanski has seen Oldman undergo plenty of transformations across his career. Aside from producing the Darkest Hour as well, he also put his weight behind Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which saw him take on the role of master spy George Smiley, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, in which he plays a Russian gangster, and Mank, where he portrayed Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz. All of those roles required very distinct voices, none of which were too similar to Oldman’s natural London lilt. After almost three decades of working together, you can understand why the actor felt comfortable making such a demand of his tame producer.
Lamb might work for the country’s top spy agency, but he’s far from James Bond. He is rude, crass, poorly dressed, and incredibly ‘normal’ in almost every conceivable way. That’s what makes him so compelling, though; he’s an ordinary man in a dangerous world, something the audience can easily relate to. Furthermore, Oldman has been nominated for several major prizes, including several Golden Globes and an Emmy for his performance in Slow Horses.
While his mastery of voices has earned him fame and fortune, it’s clearly taken its toll on Oldman. It’s not easy to innovate varied vocal performances, so it’s nice that he’s been able to take a little vacation, one that just so happens to involve one of the most critically-acclaimed TV shows of recent years.
